Christmas Bonanza 2017 | Design And Drill Take-Along Toolkit

With so many toys coming out this Christmas it’s hard to get caught up about what my boys might like, what they actually want and things they might actually need. This year has been the first year that Toby has pointed to things, or has said off the cuff, that ‘Father Christmas bring me one of these’. It’s so lovely to be able to get a feel for what things he thinks he’s interested in and what kind of thing catches his eye.

From a young age Toby has been very hands on with anything. He’ll get his head down to the ground to work out how, why and when a wheel turns on his car and he’ll want to pull things apart and put them back together again. He likes to build things up and knock them down to the ground and he loves to ask ‘why’ which I think is so important in his development. This has absolutely shaped the kind of toys we’ve thought about getting him in the past and it’s certainly helping us now.

One thing that was recently brought to my attention was the ‘Design And Drill Take-Along Toolkit’ from Learning Resources. Since moving house we’ve had a lot of tools out that Toby’s gotten hold of and has started ‘helping’ us build things. He loves to turn a screwdriver, push an Allen key round and bang things with a hammer so this set look perfect to keep his hands and mind occupied.

Toby, Teddy and I sat down to play with this and, at first, I just gave them total free reign over how they played with it. Normally if they get a new toy the last thing they want to do is be told how to play and what to do with it so it’s always good to let them explore first.

There were, obviously, quite a few arguments between the boys over who would have the screwdriver first and for how long and so we all then took it in turns, including me, to have a go at screwing the bolts down to the activity board.

Once the boys were familiar with the ‘Design and Drill’ Toby and I sat down and did a few different activities. We separated the bolts into colours, then we counted how many we had.

In the booklet that comes with the Design & Drill Toolkit there are 13 patterns to make and we did this together, as well as make our own too. We haven’t yet moved on to relative positions in terms of empty bolt holes but this is the next step when it comes to creating the patterns.

The screwdriver does require 3xAA batteries but it can be used like a normal screwdriver without the power if necessary. It doesn’t allow the bolts to be screwed in ridiculously tight which is perfect for the boys because it means they can get them in and out easily.

It’s the perfect rainy day toy and can be used to refine gross and motor skills, help with colour recognition, counting and creating patterns – the fun is endless and it’s less than £25!